Pages

Sunday, December 14, 2008

The White Rock Marathon- Perseverance

Today my husband ran miles, and miles and miles. 26.2 to be exact. Slower than he expected, due to some major, debilitating muscle cramping (to the point of him nearly crawling at times)- but who cares? He finished. And that was triumphant!

There were so many marathoners out there today- it's really an unbelievable sight to see the masses that participate. And what they all have in common, obviously, is perseverance. Many, like my husband, have trained for months for this single day. Train all you want, but you can really never predict how race day is going to go.

Aside from my husband's muscle cramping, he realized his toe felt funny during the race for a now obvious reason once he took his shoe off, AFTER the race. (See scary looking toe photo.) That is perseverance!

The lead half-marathon runner had his own difficult day. He missed a turn, and because he was so far out in the lead, it took the officials about two minutes to tell him of his mistake. It cost him some time and a ton of frustration. I'm not sure how it all turned out for him, but I saw how distraught he was when it first happened. Many would've just stopped and said, "Forget it, I've lost 4 minutes, I can't win!!!" but this runner kept on running. That, also, is perseverance.

And although I didn't run a marathon today, I did walk around and perform twice at the Dallas Heritage Village Candlelight celebration. My shoes felt so comfortable. In fact, uncomfortably comfortable. They seemed a little roomier than normal. And they were! (See picture of red shoe unattached from it's sole/soul.) I had to lose the ripped shoe and keep on walking around while avoiding donkey poo left from the Donkey Drawn Carriage Rides. I had my own unexpected mishap, but I too persevered! However, not at all in the same way, or on the same level as the runners I saw today.

So my admiration goes out to those that will most likely be hobbling around tomorrow, and maybe the next few days, regardless of how comfortable their shoes are. (Pictured below are my two favorite marathoners.) You just ran a marathon! YOU are the SHIZ!